SHM Converge Scientific Abstract ePoster Gallery-Advancing Inpatient Mobility: Steps to Quality Improvement

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This quality improvement project at the Medical University of South Carolina aimed to build a culture of mobility for hospitalized patients. The team focused on three goals: improving daily nursing documentation of patient mobility capacity using the AM-PAC mobility score, integrating active mobility into health professions student training, and increasing documentation of ambulation distance for patients who are able to walk.<br /><br />The project was motivated by evidence that hospitalized patients spend most of their time in bed, and that immobility contributes to functional decline, longer hospital stays, lower discharge-to-home rates, and higher mortality. The AM-PAC “6-Clicks” Inpatient Mobility Short Form was used as a simple, validated tool to assess mobility capacity.<br /><br />Early results showed strong success in documenting AM-PAC scores: nurses recorded daily AM-PAC scores on 87% of hospital patient-days among 5,781 ambulatory patients admitted from September 2023 to April 2024. The student mobility pilot was also successful: 12 interprofessional students independently completed 503 patient mobilization events over two months with zero falls. Students reported greater confidence and awareness of the importance of mobility.<br /><br />However, the project identified a major gap in documenting actual mobility achieved. Ambulation distance was recorded on only 3.8% of patient-days for ambulatory patients, showing a need for improved workflow and documentation.<br /><br />Next steps include analyzing how AM-PAC scores affect clinical and system outcomes, embedding the mobility curriculum into more health professions training, simplifying nurse documentation in the electronic medical record, and expanding the approach to other hospitals.

Asset Subtitle

Leonidas N. Walthall IV

Meta Tag

Author List Jingwen Zhang, Justin Marsden, Leonidas N. Walthall IV, Marc Heincelman, Meghan K. Thomas

Category Innovations

Concept Inpatient Immobility

Concept AM-PAC IMSF

Concept Patient Independence

Concept Length of Stay

Concept Ambulatory Capacity

Distinguished Non-Finalist

Presenter Organization Medical University of South Carolina

Presenting Author Leonidas N. Walthall IV

Track Quality Improvement

Keywords

patient mobility

hospitalized patients

AM-PAC mobility score

nursing documentation

ambulation distance

interprofessional education

mobility culture

functional decline

electronic medical record

quality improvement

Inpatient Immobility

AM-PAC IMSF

Patient Independence

Length of Stay

Ambulatory Capacity